You could make calls, surf the net during flights from as early as JanuaryThe new norms allowing use of mobile phones for making calls and internet surfing during flights in the Indian airspace could come as early as January, after the Law Ministry gives its concurrence, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said on Wednesday. The Telecom Ministry is currently awaiting the views of the Law Ministry on in-flight connectivity rules and is hopeful of notifying the norms soon thereafter, Sinha said. On Ma...

RBI has kept the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.5 per cent. Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF remains at 6.25 per cent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.75 percent.

While back-to-back rate hikes in June and August had impacted buyers' sentiment in the interim, maintaining the status quo on policy rate in October and today, will reinforce the confidence of homebuyers.

This MPC meet is being closely watched since it comes on the heels of the tension-fraught RBI board meeting last month where the members agreed to set up a committee to look into the government's claim on surplus capital.

In its last bi-monthly monetary policy, the RBI had kept the repo rate (at which RBI lends to other banks) unchanged at 6.5 per cent with warning that volatile and rising oil prices, and tightening of global financial conditions pose substantial risks to the growth and inflation.

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, will meet for three days starting December 3 for the fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review of the current financial year.